Well it is with an especially heavy heart that I write this LOSCON AAR
while fully enveloped in Monday morning Loscon blues. Having the Makowsky's
over for the week was an excellent experience for us. It's nice to see what a
great kid Talia is and provide Nat and I with a model or a standard for
parenting. Thanks for the experience.

Much computer action was to be had during the weekday which was great
what with Hexen II being released. It's really a great game for coop and we got
all the way through the first hub and partly into the second.

Thursday night saw the arrival of Kurt and Mike and their three
machines. Everything hooked up pretty quick and we really had a good time. Team
fortress went very well with some connect problems that lead to one machine
being out a lot. (more on technical aspects later). Despite the unfamiliarity
with maps and rules I think everyone had a good time with Team fortress and all
the mods as well as the teamwork aspects. This continued to be a heavily played
game all weekend.

What was it Friday night we broke out those virgin levels and played
Deathmatch Extroadinaire. Again, that went very well with some network dumps on
the last level. I believe this is when Jim joined us for the first time and we
really gave him an excellent introduction to what goes on around here. (Plus he
has a computer hint hint). Saturday (as well as the whole weekend) went by way
to fast with a few commitments from the Real World (tm) screwing up most of the
afternoon (though we had fun with the picture for Rob).

Saturday
night was when we watched Winter War which I think everyone agrees was a great
flick. Then it was back to TF. Apologies for technical problems later in the
night. Next time when a machine goes down we will enact and enforced 15 -20
minute time limit for the odd man out and rotate everyone through so we're all
getting gaming. Natalie ended up getting the short end of the stick which was
entirely my fault.

Sunday saw Bob disappear before first light, which was too bad we
didn't get to hug Talia goodbye. I guess the major thing that happened Sunday
was the downloading of the latest CTFBOT and then TF bot mods. We played TF BOT
all afternoon. This was a great tool four humans against 12 TFbots. They're very
tough on defense and in actual combat though they still do some stupid stuff.
Which is why you need to have at least on human on the bot side to lead them.
Tina Rob and Maisy stopped by also, which was cool. We broke through the CD
audio track problem and put together and excellent audio cd. So Kurt should be
able to burn full cds in the future. Finally we just couldn't let the weekend go
and Mike stopped by around 8pm and we did CTFBots for a hour and a half or
three. Pack-up went smooth and everyone was on their way by 11pm, leaving an
empty and lonely house :(

TECHNICAL STUFF:
Things that went well:
1. Mike's computer cut the mustard. (took well to netwrok and being
prodded)
2. Got his joystick working (sort of)
3. Network went up fast without problems.
4. Worked around/with Talia quite well.
5. Indian takeout.
6. Burned many excellent CDs including first LOSCON SMUT cd (though Nat was
pissed she didn't get to add a ladies section)
7. Licked the CD audio problem.
8. Excellent photo manipulation with the Kodak Dc120 and PSP. (More to
follow no doubt).

Things that went less than well:
1. No Tyler
2. No Glenwood and Andales (something had to give)
3. No Shadowrun (someday)
4. We started getting quirky dumps that were very hard to hammer down cause
(Hunk_Alloc errors in Quake)
5. These errors impinged on everyone playing all the time (we will enact
the odd man out rotation automatically next time.)
6. Bob's computer power supply crap out!!!! (Plus he got the part delivered
to MI by Friday..grrr)
7. Unable to hook up with Coggs except for a little while on Friday..ping
to hi. Kurt and I were talking and it may be time to look into two things:
Getting a hub that everything would plug into. This should eliminate packet
loss. This is new technology for us that will have to FIFO (fuckin' figure it
out) Perhaps getting 100mps cards instead of 10 mps cards. (might be expensive.
Also all desktops should get upgraded to 3d cards before next Loscon.

CONCLUSION:
Well we had a great time though Loscon blues seem to be hitting especially
hard. Don't forget also had to migrate from the basement for the first time in
my life. All these new changes! Anyway, next mini-Loscon is tentatively
scheduled for first week of December. Maybe we can shoot to have a hub here for
experimentation by then. I hope everyone had a good time. Now that Bob
rectified everyone's Quakeworld/Quake Spy problems we should be able to meet
online someplace with reasonable ping (mid 200s) including Nat with our
additional ISP and have some fun. Will see if we can hook up later this week.
And now it's time to have a baby!
Los

P.S Please ensure those I don't have email addresses for get this
(Todd, Jim, Greg, Jonathon, etc).